Hi all,
I’ve been lurking for a good few months as I’ve been working my way through the belts. I’m just on to brown and aware I’m only about half way through the content but I wanted to ask what peoples experience after completing the course was like?
What did people feel like they were lacking? How did you use your language? How confident did you feel speaking?
I’m excited to put some into practice next year with a trip to eryri and I’m intrigued on where I may get to. I am aware it’s subjective though so just interested in your experience!
Thanks!
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The courses are currently being upgraded, so this might change; but FWIW, here’s my opinion on the Italian course, which I finished:
You will be able to get into conversations and sustain them with effort, which is the main point of the course.
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I learned many years ago, before the belts, and before the course was really polished to what it is now (I suspect it works even better now - that’s the impression I’m getting from doing the Irish course).
But FWIW, soon after I’d finished the course I was up in Eryri for a few weeks. I found I could go into shops to start and maintain conversations. I even went to meet up with the man himself, Mr Aran Jones, and had an hour-long conversation with him.
So I would say if you’re the sort of person (like me) who’s happy to muddle through and make lots of mistakes and not care if you’re not speaking perfectly or don’t know wall the words, you’ll be able to have all sorts of conversations. And then there’s no stopping you.
In terms of “lacking”, it’s specific vocabulary. But that’s what dictionaries and broad listening and reading are for. You’ll already have the grammatical structures; all you need to do is drop the new words in. My tip for that is: think of what you’ll be doing while you’re there. Say you’re going to walk and climb, find out the words for map and path and summit and crampon (or whatever it is walkers and climbers talk about!) Then play with some of the sentences you already know: instead of “Dwi isho hwylio ar y mor” you could have “Dwi isho dringo y mynydd”.
But I think you’ll find that you’ll be able to hold your own in conversations, and that people will be delighted that you’re learning Welsh and shocked that you’ve been learning for such a short period of time.
Have a lovely time - such a gorgeous part of the world!
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Thanks Sara, thats great to know. Ive just had a one to one lesson with a tutor and found I could stay in Welsh a lot of the time and actually thought in Welsh for a while after which was an interesting experience so its feeling positive although I did have to code switch a fair bit.
Still feels terrifying to just open with it and have a native speak back at full speed but I guess thats where survival phrases come in 
And im sure people will be able to tell im learning from my accent.
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Definitely! I love that “survival phrases” get covered so early on in the course - so important.
Will you report back after you’ve been? I’d love to hear how you get on…
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I definitely will let you know how it goes Sara! I will be staying near caernarfon so hopefully should have lot of chances to speak it 
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I’m in Caernarfon so if you’d like a meet up, let me know closer to the time and we can arrange something 